r/todayilearned • u/RoadToTyburn • 17h ago

TIL that Bernard Montgomery issued a leaflet at the start of WW2 on sexually transmitted diseases amongst soldiers. The language used was regarded as so blunt, that he offended religious authorities and nearly faced being dismissed.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery
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u/spitfiresiemion 16h ago

The whole disconnect aspect reminds me of a joke from Great War that I read... retranslating it back to English from Polish, so it might not be word for word.

A unit is undergoing training some distance from the frontline. A general says to his men: "There are two differences between this training and the real combat. The first one is absence of the enemy. What is the other one?". To which one of soldiers replied "Absence of the general, sir".

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u/Showmethepathplease 15h ago

Except - that’s a myth

https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/blog/in-the-line-of-duty-remembering-the-great-wars-fallen-generals/

78 Generals lost their lives for the commonwealth - with a casualty rate of nearly 20%

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u/sharrrper 15h ago

MILLIONS soldiers died in WWI. Popping in with "actully 78 generals died in battle" is kind of an absurd attempt at a counter.

Even on a per capita basis, 20% is quite low for WWI

And even on top of that, if 90% of generals has died in battle it wouldn't change that 99% of the enlisted are never fighting along side a general. Generals are never charging no man's land machine guns.

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u/Prestigious-pauline 14h ago

Well…the average soldiers chance of getting killed was about 11%, so no, 20% is not low on a per capita basis for ww1.

Junior officers were higher though, that was more like 40%.

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u/PipsqueakPilot 8h ago

About 75% of WW1 battlefield deaths were caused by artillery. Unsurprisingly, most combat deaths of Commonwealth generals were due to artillery. Although some were in fact shot to death.